Firming, strengthening and toning the abdominal muscles can improve the health and self-image of an individual. Strong abdominal muscles in combination with a strong back make injury to an individual engaged in physical activity less likely. Runners with conditioned abdominal muscles perform better. Abdominal muscles that are well defined increase a person's physical appearance. A person's confidence is often enhanced if the person feels that he or she is in good shape and a flat stomach with well-defined abdominal muscles enhances this confidence level.
Much money, time and personal effort are expended by thousands of persons on a daily basis trying to achieve well-defined and strong abdominal muscles. The number of exercise routines and exercise devices on the market is large. The personal expenditures per year in the United States alone to strengthen and condition the muscles of the abdomen are in the millions of dollars annually.
Most of the exercise routines used to condition the abdominal muscles are a variation of the sit-up in which a person uses his or her abdominal muscles to move the upper body alone in a direction towards the legs and feet, or in combination with the legs moving toward the chest. A variety of external devices may be used by persons to enhance the conditioning and strengthening of the abdominal muscles. Such devices are: 1) weights placed on a person's chest to add resistance to the contracting of the abdominal muscles when the person's upper body is raised during the sit-up; 2) weights are placed on a person's ankles to enhance the resistance when the legs are raised in conjunction with the raising of the upper body during a modified sit-up; 3) stability balls with diameters between 55 cm and 85 cm are used by persons to create resistance in the abdominal area to strengthen the abdominal muscles; and 4) exercise machines that a person sits into whereby the machine allows resistance to be created in the abdominal area when the person moves so as to reduce the distance between the chest (upper body) and the person's legs.
The disclosed invention provides for a method of performing a modified sit-up using a flexible elongated device which is held by the person's hands and positioned against the person's thigh or thighs close to the knee such that added resistance for the abdominal muscles is created as the person performs the sit-ups.